Research

Professor John Flavell

"The Development of Children's Knowledge
About the Mind"

by Karen Coombs, Teacher - Center
A.M.The Bing Times - June 1994

Professor John Flavell of the Stanford University
Department of Psychology recently addressed the Bing
community as part of the ongoing Distinguished Lecture
series held at Bing Nursery School. Professor Flavell is
an internationally recognized developmental psychologist
who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences just
two days before this lecture. He has been conducting
research at Bing for the past eighteen years.

Professor Flavell studies theory-of-mind research
dealing with children's cognitive development. He began
by discussing a research project called "The False
Belief Task" which was instrumental in launching his
field and was conducted at Bing. A child was shown a
Band-Aid box and asked to guess what might be inside.
Most often, of course, the child would guess
"Band-Aids." The researcher would then show the
child a small doll that was actually inside. The child
was then asked to imagine that a friend was being asked
to guess what was inside the Band-Aid box. What would the
friend say when asked what was inside? The child would
most often respond that the friend would say that
Band-Aids were in the box. The researcher would then ask
the child to remember back to when she herself first saw
the box of Band-Aids a short time before. When asked to
recall what she first thought was inside, the child would
most often respond, "a doll."

These sorts of results provide some insight into
children's mental states. Theory-of-mind research deals
with all the various mental states: perceptions,
emotions, desires, beliefs, knowledge, thinking, etc.
These mental states are linked to each other, as well as
to perceptions and to actions or behaviors experienced by
the child. What children understand about the mental
world depends largely upon their age.

Infants: Babies from 3-5 months look with interest at
people and objects. By older infancy, 9-12 months, a
triangle relationship develops between themselves, the
other person and the object. The infant begins to
communicate a sense of "aboutness"  that
people are about things "out there." Older
infants begin to notice the relationship between people
and to what these people are paying attention. They
realize that objects have names and what a person is
naming depends upon what they're looking at and not what
the infant is looking at. Not only do they realize that a
person is looking at something, but they also sense that
the other person is having a visual experience while
looking at something.

Ages 2-3 years: The child begins to clearly understand
three mental states: Perceptions  the child
realizes that another person sees that which is in front
of his eyes and not necessarily what the child herself
can see. Desires  the child realizes that if
someone wants something, they'll try to get it. They also
realize that if they don't get it, they'll be frustrated
or unhappy. Emotions  the child can distinguish
between positive and negative emotions.

Ages 3 1/2-4 years: The child 's mental
representational conception of the mind develops. In
other words, the mind contains representations, or
models, of the world. People act on these mental models,
or beliefs, rather than on how the world really is.

The concept of beliefs is a difficult one for
preschool children. Returning to the Band-Aid box study,
we realize that having seen the Band-Aid box, the child
forms a mental impression, "Band-Aids," and
then verbalizes it. As soon as she sees what the reality
is, a doll, it completely overwrites her previous belief.

Another difficult concept for preschool children is
that of the appearance/reality distinction. To illustrate
this concept in a research situation a child is shown a
toy boat which is white. The researcher then puts it back
and forth behind a red filter a few times to show the
child how it looks. The researcher then leaves the boat
behind the red filter and asks the child, "What
color is the boat, really and truly? Is it really and
truly red or is it really and truly white?" The
child most often responds, "red." In both of
the above cases, ages 3-4 are a transitional time for
children in the development of these concepts. In both
situations the child must understand that their visual or
mental representation is different from the reality.

Professor Flavell's most recent research has dealt
with what children know about what goes on in the mind in
the here and now. He shared the following information:

What Preschoolers Know About Thinking

It's a human/animate activity.

It's an internal, mental activity.

One thinks about things  present or absent,
real or imaginary.

Can distinguish thinking from some other
psychological activities such as seeing,
touching, talking, knowing.

Preschoolers will sometimes infer that another
person is thinking if there is strong
behavioral/situational evidence for mental
activity.

What Preschoolers Don't Know About Thinking

They greatly underestimate the amount of mental
activity that goes on in people.

They may not assume that anything is going on in
another person's mind even if the person is known
to be looking at something, listening to
something, reading, or talking to someone.

Even when they do infer that someone is thinking,
they tend to be poor at inferring from available
evidence what the person may be thinking about.

They tend to have a poor understanding of
attentional focus and attentional limits, perhaps
conceiving of the mind as more like a lamp than a
spotlight.

Foregoing difficulties are also very evident when
preschoolers are asked to report their own mental
activity rather than that of another person. That
is, they tend to be very poor introspectors.

Professor Flavell cited several research experiments
to illustrate the above points. One research project
involved 5 year olds in which the researcher says to the
child, "I'm going to ask you a question but I don't
want you to say the answer out loud. Keep it a secret.
Most people in the world have toothbrushes in their
houses. They keep their toothbrushes in a special room.
Now, don't say it out loud - which room in your house has
your toothbrush in it?" When this part of the
experiment was completed the child was moved to another
chair and asked, "Just a moment ago when you were in
the other chair, was your mind doing anything? Were you
thinking about anything or having any thoughts?"

Some children responded, "No." Those
children who said "Yes" were asked what they
had been thinking about. They reported that they had been
thinking about objects in front of them that were visible
at the time. None reported anything having to do with
toothbrushes.

Professor Flavell's theory of mind research seems to
imply that children don't act as though they have an
ongoing mental life. Children also do not seem to realize
that other people have thoughts or preoccupations on
their mind, especially if these people don't clearly look
like they are thinking. This lack of understanding about
human thought processes may interfere with the child's
full sense of self. Children may view themselves and
others in the same way as adults view an animal, who often
appear to have an absent inner life. Professor Flavell
hopes that in the future research on theory of mind will
help us to better understand and treat autistic children,
who probably do not have a theory of mind.

On the occasion of this lecture, Mrs. Jeanne Lepper,
Director of Bing Nursery School, presented Professor
Flavell with a plaque which read as follows:

"Professor John Flavell  in honor of 18
years of research at the Bing Nursery School,
Stanford University and his pioneering work on
children's theories of mind. April 27, 1994."